In Teaching search strategies to history students I wrote about the importance of identifying the goal of a research task before typing a query into a search box. I was reminded of that last week when someone asked me “what is the research process like in the age of ai?”
My short answer was that it is still important to complete a short pre-search checklist before typing a query into a search box. In fact, in the age of ai it might be even more important than ever to have a clear objective for a research task before typing your first query into the search box of any search engine.
ai is great at making suggestions for things to look for and suggestions for things related to a topic. However, without a clear goal for the research task, students who turn to an ai tool for suggestions may find themselves following a path that, while interesting, doesn't actually lead them toward their goal.
So use your favorite ai tool to get suggestions, but make sure you know what your goal is when you start the research process. To that end, I have a simple pre-search worksheet that you may find helpful. A PDF of that worksheet is available below.
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